


Defence of a Friend

by tuckercolour



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Best Friends, Friendship, Gen, Happy Ending, Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-15
Updated: 2013-07-15
Packaged: 2017-12-20 06:42:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/884155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuckercolour/pseuds/tuckercolour
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim Kirk has been in another bar fight -- but Bones thought he'd finally grown out of all that months ago. What in the world made the Captain get himself in this state?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Defence of a Friend

"Jim -- what the hell happened?" Doctor McCoy growled as his best friend staggered into sickbay, nose bleeding profusely, eye blackened, shirt ripped and soaking, left arm hanging limply. The battered Captain of the Enterprise merely grinned lopsidedly before collapsing onto the nearest bed. McCoy sighed, gritted his teeth and began checking him over more fully. His ribs and lower spine were bruised badly, and as for the arm, there was both a fracture at the wrist and a minor dislocation of the shoulder. All of his knuckles were bloodied, two fingers on his right hand were broken (as well as his nose) and there were lacerations, with varying degrees of severity, on all four limbs, his stomach, cheek, collarbone, and even the back of his head, red staining his mussed up blond hair. "Seriously, for god's sake Jim..." the doctor muttered after several moments of scanning.  
  
"Go easy on me, Bones," was all his patient mumbled in reply.  
  
"I thought this was peaceful shore leave? Nice safe Earth colony, some home-from-home comforts ... and I get a comm saying you've gotten yourself beat up at a bar!"  
  
Jim smiled a little again at that, before trying to look hurt. "I hope they told you I gave the other guys a run for their money too," he joked weakly. Bones shook his head, the tiniest flicker of amusement showing beneath the irritation and ill-disguised concern on his face as he rolled his eyes. "Come on, it's not like you're not used to this. I'm Jim Kirk! Bar fights are practically what I --"  
  
"What you _used_ to do," Bones snapped, holding up a hypospray. "You haven't got into dumbass fights like this for months, and God only knows when I last saw you this bad from anything less than a proper, meaningful alien battle." He stabbed the hypo against Jim's neck before he'd finished speaking, not giving his captain time to so much as open his mouth to reply.  
  
~  
  
As soon as he was satisfied that all Jim's injuries were thoroughly tended to and that he was sleeping peacefully, Bones left, giving Nurse Chapel instructions to make sure the Captain didn't leave sickbay -- "hypo him again if you have to, he's a nightmare for trying to get out of proper medical care, especially when he knows I'll be asking him awkward questions about how he got into this bloody mess" -- and went straight to the Bridge to speak to Chekov and Sulu, who had been in the same landing party. Sulu had been the one to warn him of the basics of the event by comm before Jim had arrived.   
  
"What the hell happened down there?" he demanded, not bothering with conversation starters. Mr Spock regarded him with a raised eyebrow at his rudeness from his temporary position in the Captain's chair.  
  
"Doctor McCoy," he started, intending to reprimand him for not so much as announcing his presence before storming over to the helm where two pairs of eyes looked up at him in alarm, but he snapped back,  
  
"Not now, Mr Spock, I have a patient to consider and you and I both know damn well he isn't gonna willingly tell me what happened himself, so if you'll excuse me, I'd like to ask these two fellow members of his boarding party what in God's name drove our captain to get himself in this awful state." He paused for a moment, but Spock didn't speak again, so he turned his attention back to the crewmen in front of him. "Mr Sulu?"  
  
The helmsman sighed. "I was on the other side of the establishment when the trouble started, I'm afraid." McCoy raised an eyebrow in question. "I went to the bathroom, if you must to know. Anyway, all I know is, he was chatting with some locals, perfectly friendly, and the next I really saw of him he was being dragged out of the brawl by our security detail, Paulsons, in much the same state as you found him, I reckon." He glanced at his friend and hesitated at the nervous look on that young face before admitting dutifully, "Chekov saw more of it than I did, Doctor." He stopped just short of adding "you should ask him"; he knew that, for whatever reason, the ensign didn't really want to be asked.  
  
"Then, Mr Chekov?"  
  
He swallowed visibly. "Ze Keptin ordered zat I do not tell you what was said."  
  
"I don't give a shit, Ensign, I'm his doctor, I have a right to know the circumstances of his injuries." He flashed a dangerous glance at Spock who, he knew, would contest whether this was actually regulation. When Chekov didn't continue straight away, he added sarcastically, "I suppose he ordered you to stand by and watch him get his ass handed to him, too?"  
  
"Well not exactly, Sir, but -- he was wery keen to ... to deal wiz ze ... situation himself. He demanded a fair fight, inwolwing no one whom it did not concern, and no weapons. I beliewe he was in fact most upset to be forcibly remowed from ze fight at ze point at which Paulsons felt zat he could not possibly stand idly by any longer in good conscience."  
  
He knew he should drop it. But he didn't. "And what about you? I notice you didn't seem to wanna step in at any point during your retelling. Just planning to wait for Captain Kirk to get torn limb from limb before casually beaming back up without him? Or what?"  
  
It was Sulu who replied, "With all due respect, Doctor, that's not fair. Chekov was following orders, and whilst he has undergone the same basic fight training as everyone else on board this ship, that doesn't compare to the specialised skills needed to rescue someone from a group of angry drunk strangers. That's what we have security for."  
  
"...You're right. Sorry, kid, I'm just..."  
  
"Worried. I know," Chekov managed a small smile to show he wasn't really offended, and whispered to Sulu, "Zank you, Hikaru."  
  
There was a moment's silence before McCoy said, as gently as he could manage, "Seriously, though, I know Captain's orders said not to tell, but doctor's orders say I need to know a bit more about the situation in order to help him best. I mean, he hasn't pulled shit like this in ages, so I guess he was pretty badly provoked, and things like that can require a brief psych eval in some cases. Just ... can't you give me any more details?"  
  
Chekov licked his lips and paused again then said hesitantly, "One of ze men zere was insulting ... a friend of ze Keptin's, and when he began to contest zis, ze man's companions began to join in -- I zink zey found it amusing to goad him. And zen one of zem said -- said zomezing particularly ... unpleasant, and ze Keptin hit him."  
  
McCoy was shaking his head. "I know he's a good loyal kid, but dammit, he usually deals with this stuff more responsibly these days. Just outright whacking some stranger just cause -- you said it was a friend of his they insulted?" The ensign shifted uncomfortably before nodding once. "Did you hear a name? Pretty sure I know all of Jim's friends." There was an unaccountably awkward silence. "Well?" he almost barked. Chekov actually flinched, and his gaze flickered between Sulu, McCoy, and his own twitchy fingers in his lap. He looked positively stricken. Suddenly it dawned on the doctor. "Wait. This wasn't something to do with me, was it?" A pause. "Answer me, dammit."  
  
Another pause. "Yes, Sir. Apparently zey knew you from your high school days. Ze Keptin really did not appreciate ze way zey spoke of you."  
  
He sighed deeply. That ... made a certain amount of sense. He had never been hugely popular with his peers at high school, for one reason or another, and though he may say so himself, if there was one person in this universe -- except maybe Mr Spock -- whose honour Jim would start a fight to defend... "Dammit Jim," he muttered, and strode off back onto the turbo lift without even remembering to thank Chekov and Sulu.  
  
~  
  
"Hey Bones," an apparently cheerful voice greeted the CMO as he re-entered sickbay. His initial surprise morphed quickly into suspicion.  
  
"You're in a good mood," he said dubiously. Jim shrugged, then winced at the discomfort that motion caused.  
  
"Chris threatened me with a sedative til I gave in and swore on my command golds that I wouldn't leave this bed --" he patted it -- "until you got back." He made a half-hearted attempt to sit up and swing his legs off the side, but Bones was in the way, and he was tired; he ended up propped on his elbows with his knees partly up. "So now you're here, I'm really hoping --"  
  
"Lie down, Jim."  
  
The tone was too firm to ignore. Defeated, he flopped back onto the pillows. "Go on, then, ask your questions."  
  
"I don't need to," Bones told him. "I wrung it out of Ensign Chekov. Don't be mad at him, though," be added, seeing the captain's annoyed expression, "I really forced him, and guessed half of it myself. Like the fact that all this nonsense was about me." He gave his friend a long, hard look.  
  
"Didn't know you thought so highly of yourself, Bones, to guess I'd take on five guys for your sake," Jim joked finally.  
  
"There were five of 'em?!"  
  
"You think I'd be in this state from less? I'm wounded."  
  
"Yeah, you are, that's kind of the point."  
  
"Shut up, you know what I meant."  
  
"You're a pain in the ass, you know that?"  
  
"I know I've _got_ a pain in _my_ ass, from punching dicks for you, remember, so don't be mean."  
  
"I'd much rather you'd looked after your own safety!"  
  
There was a moment's silence as they both knew they'd got to the heart of the conversation. Eventually Jim sighed. "I know. And I'm sorry, Bones, I know it was stupid, I just ... They were saying all this shit about you, and I got so angry, you know?"  
  
"I'm flattered you care that much about me, kid, don't get me wrong. But you can't just go around picking fights you can't win every time somebody pisses you off!"  
  
Jim was shaking his head. "You don't understand. The things they were saying ... and you're my best friend, you know? I never had a best friend before you, Bones. No way I'd've made it anywhere near this far without you. So I wasn't just a bit pissed off. I actually don't know when I was last that angry," he admitted, looking determinedly up at the ceiling rather than meeting Bones' eyes, his cheeks slightly flushed.  
  
"That's ... Thanks, kid. I'm touched. But seriously. Look after yourself. I don't know what I'd do without you either." He hesitated. "We all need you in top form, right, Captain? But more than that ... I need my Jim around. Scares me to see you that roughed up."  
  
"...Did you just call me _your_ Jim?"  
  
"Oh, shut up."  
  
"Make me," he grinned, his tone almost flirty -- but when Bones reached for a hypospray in response, he held his hands up in surrender. "All right, all right, no need for that. I'll try and keep myself in one piece in future. Next person who talks shit about _my Bones_ will just get phaser stunned, that okay?"  
  
 _Jim's Bones_ rolled his eyes, but the corners of his mouth twitched upwards. "Better," was his reply.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Star Trek fic. Con crit welcomed. Also, I'm British, so I hope I got the speech right...


End file.
